Pope Francis: More People Need to Join Pro-Life Efforts to Stop Abortion

Pope Francis says he is concerned that not enough people are involved in lifesaving efforts to end abortion. With so many direct and sustained attacks, Pope Francis said he is worried that so few people are involved in pro-life activities.

No matter where anyone lives, chances are their lives are touched by abortion and euthanasia. Abortion reports worldwide estimate that 1 billion babies were killed so barbarically in abortions during the past 100 years. We only have to look across the water to know the devastation of abortion – since the 1967 abortion act, over 8.8 million lives have been taken by abortion in Great Britain alone. And that number is growing every day – an abortion occurs every 3 minutes and 1 in 5 pregnancies end in an abortion.

Reciting the Angelus prayer at the Vatican on the 4th February, for which some 20,000 people packed into St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis marked Italy’s Pro-Life Sunday and also called for a day of prayer and fasting for peace on the 23rd February with special prayers for Congo and South Sudan. Thanking all the “different Church realities that promote and support life in many ways,” Pope Francis said he was surprised there were not more people involved.

“This worries me,” the pope said. “There aren’t many who fight on behalf of life in a world where, every day, more weapons are made; where, every day, more laws against life are passed; where, every day, this throwaway culture expands, throwing away what isn’t useful, what is bothersome” to too many people.

Pope Francis asked for prayers that more people would become aware of the dire need to defend human life “in this moment of destruction and of throwing away humanity.” The new Abortion Worldwide Report is the first to systematically track the number of abortions reported in 100 nations, territories and regions from the year of legalization through 2015, according to the Family Research Council.

Also involved in the expansive new report are Human Life International, Global Life Campaign, Charlotte Lozier Institute and Regent University. Its principle authors are Wm. Robert Johnston, Ph.D., and Thomas W. Jacobson, M.A. The new global abortion report begins with data from 1920 when the former U.S.S.R. became the first to authorize abortion, according to Human Life International. Today, 136 nations have legalized abortions to some extent, the group reports.

Now Ireland is coming under fierce and sustained attack as the battle to save the 8th amendment to the Irish Constitution intensifies. The 8th Amendment is the only legal protection left for unborn babies in Ireland, and it enshrines the fundamental, unalienable and equal right to life of both mother and unborn baby. This law makes Ireland a true beacon of progress, modernity and compassion and ensures that both lives are held in equal regard and that one life is not given priority over the other. It means both mother and child are shown love and granted protection. The referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment takes place in May. If it were to be repealed, unborn children would be left defenceless and at the mercy of whatever laws are introduced into Ireland by pro-abortion politicians, now and in years to come.

So, as Pope Francis encourages, get involved in the fight for life today.